About this blog

The journey from John o'Groats to Land's End took place in 14 sections, starting in 1996 (a week or so each year). The idea came to me in 1995 and I completed the British JoGLE Watershed in June 2009.

I was joined by a number of relations and friends from time to time. Most notable among my walking companions were my son Tim (7 sections) and nephews Peter and Jonny.

After walking the first section in 1996 I discovered that Dave Hewitt had already pioneered the Scottish Watershed (to Cape Wrath) in 1987, and had published his excellent account Walking the Watershed in 1994. We have been in touch since then, and he has been a great encouragement.

A simple definition of the watershed is that any rain falling to the left of the path finishes in the North Sea or English Channel, and anything to the right flows into the Atlantic Ocean, the Irish Sea or the Bristol Channel.

I believe that this was the first walk along the full length of the British JoGLE Watershed. I became aware just after I completed the journey that the late Mike Allen walked a slightly different version (from Land's End to Cape Wrath) between 1988 and 1994, so he will have covered the same ground apart from the most north-easterly 220km.

There have subsequently been several walks and publications about parts of the JoGLE watershed, including Peter Wright's 2010 Ribbon of Wildness account of his Scottish section walked in 2005, which has brought the subject of watershed walking in the UK to a wider audience.

I hope you enjoy this blog. I'm planning to publish a full account in 2013/4. A summary of the walk appeared in The Angry Corrie volume 76 in 2009.

Malcolm Wylie.

Tuesday 2 June 1998

Day 34 - the Black Mount horseshoe

Today was one of the highlights of the whole Watershed, and it was made all the better because we didn't need to carry tents and food.

The cloud slowly lifted as we climbed up the first of the 4 Munros, and it cleared the top of Meall a Bhuiridh as we arrived. It's littered with ski lift paraphernalia, but we quickly moved on across the narrow connection to the Creise-Clach Leathad ridge. We found that rime had formed on the Creise cairn - a very exposed point.

Map 50. We lunched just above the next bealach, enjoying views of the Glen Etive hills. Then we climbed Stob Ghabhar via a very broad ridge which made me think of cricket. The ridge to Stob a Choire Odhair was exciting, and I was glad of the guidance and reassurance provided by the baggers' path.

A gentle descent took us to join the WHW at 283463.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)